Scaled Down Scales

...And the Hundred Heroes...

…Capture the Crystal Key…

Relvain Blackaxe the Dragonpinner saw the fleeing slaves pointing upward. Not believing they would fight hard for their Githyanki overlords, she was not surprised they were fleeing.

What she saw next did surprise her: The the Githyanki themselves were fleeing.

They had more to fight for. She was part of the third wave of the attack, but even that wave should not be enough to collapse Garaitha’s Anvil’s defenses.

They, too, pointed upward.

Relvain looked where they pointed.

The admiral’s flagship, the Cev’ren, was making its escape, its sails aflame.

A cheer went up from the Hundred Heroes. Yet she was not cheered.

“Remember the mission!” she cried. “Kada’ne must not be allowed to escape!”

And began running to the dock where their maps had indicated his flagship had been berthed. “That’s where we’ll find Team Admiral,” she told herself. The priest who had been healing her in the fight followed right behind.

When she got there, she found Nox Rhasgar helping the semi-conscious members of Team Admiral onto a Githyanki vessel. She introduced the priest, Sered to the others.

She was able to help with the sails and get the ship moving quickly, but Aurora lost control and their ship spiraled right on past the Cev’ren.

Then grapples shot out from the pirate vessel and latched onto their ship.

It was only then that she realized who had set the sails ablaze: Admiral Kada’ne was standing over the unconscious body of Andrea Ravn.

Admiral Kada’ne looked up from the body of the unconscious Dragonborn. “No!” he shouted, as his minions fired their grapples into the scout ship spiralling past them out of control. “Pirates will be pirates,” he told himself as his men leaped onto the grappled ship.

Nox Rhasgar knew they had to drive the Minions from their vessel. But he saw an opportunity to hit even more before they had time to come across. Quite a few of them had gathered near the forecastle of the admiral’s flagship.

So he hit them with an Ignition burst before they got their chance to board. They had nowhere to run, so they jumped onto two of the Astral Whitewings. The overburdened reptiles dropped suddenly and flew back to the shipyard.

“That should cut their shrieking.”

She and Delis concentrated on the other Minions as the admiral came across to their vessel and was engaged by Relvain. Finally the only minions who remained were the Psychic Archers.

And one Whitewing with a couple of minions on its back.

Its Stunning Shrieks were even worse than the Psychic Shots from the archers, so Nox concentrated his attacks on the flying reptile. Eventually, he was able to drive it back to the battle below.

Delis the Unselie was concentrating on the Psychic Archers which had so bedeviled them on the docks. But now they had their admiral to protect them. Kada’ne would point at them just as she got them in her sights and banish them — temporarily — to another dimension.

Sered the Skywalker got the message: Relvain wanted him to go over to the other ship, to prevent the admiral from using his flurries to bounce back and forth between them.

He was pretty sure the dwarf didn’t know the advantages of sticking close to a Priest of Pelor, Going over to the other ship was easy. And back, if necessary.

He strolled on over to the other vessel. Walking on air.

“That’s why they call me Skywalker,” he told Delis who was standing open-mouthed on the other side.

The admiral did not make it easy for them. Another flurry of blades — this one centered on Relvain — left her in need of healing.

They were all in need of healing. And the only mass heal Sered could do required them to group up. Close together. Where the admiral’s Flurry of Blades could be used on all of them.

The Flurry of Blades could be used for another purpose: Kada’ne used it on Relvain, nearly killing her; when the flurry got him clear of Relvain, he used a Telekinetic leap to cross back to his flagship and engage Sered.

“Oh, well,” he thought. “Time for the Aura of Astral Radiance.”

His body began to glow with swirls of divine radiance darting ever further from his body until the area within 15 feet was granting both protection for his allies and destruction for the enemies of Pelor.

“Not quite a mass heal,” he shouted. “But, if you’re bloodied stay within the aura and it will heal you!”

He didn’t tell them they would also do more damage to their enemies.

Protected by the aura, Relvain was able to get between the admiral and Sered. That gave them all they needed to bring down the coward. The entire area between the forecastle and the sterncastle was dangerous to Kada’ne now. Whenever he entered that main deck of his own flagship, the divine radiance attached him and protected the enhanced Team Admiral.

When they searched the admiral’s body, they found the crystal key Haryssus and Bejam believe is crucial to taking control of the Sovereign Gate.

When they flew both ships back to Garaitha’s Anvil, they found a surprise: The Hundred Heroes, backed by the slaves who revolted against the Githyanki, had routed the remaining slavers.

Megan Swiftblade told them how it happened. “When the Githyanki saw their admiral fleeing the grabbed the remaining ships and fled as well.”

It made sense to Sered. “So they were not willing to fight and die for leaders who would not stand with them?”

“The few left behind either died bravely, scurried to hidey holes in the shipyard, or surrendered to the Hundred Heroes,” she told him. “We are still ferreting out the last of the hiders. With the help of the ex-slaves, who know the place better than we do.”

...To Help Nox Rhasgar...

…In a Desperate Chase…

“Not hard to keep her alive,” he thought. “Relvain attracts all the attacks and then blocks them. Either that, or they glance off her armor.”

When the blows did land Sered easily healed her. He didn’t even have to exhaust his own health to do so.

The a cry went up among their enemies. The Githyanki were all pointing upward — which in the Anvil meant toward the great portal which occupied the center of the demi-plane. Their cries were not happy. The ship they watched was damaged and lurching upward, almost out of control.

“Kada’ne! Kada’ne!” they shouted, among much else. As they began to flee — some leaping on other craft to get away; others running to hide in the storerooms of the shipyard itself — Relvain came over to explain.

When Sered told him that was good, that no more heroes need suffer and die, the Dwarven Shieldmaiden disagreed.

“Remember the mission! We are trying to stop the admiral to get the Crystal Key he carries.”

Then she took off running.

Sered could think of nothing else to do but run after her. She seemed to know where she was going.

That turned out to a ship, at dock. A small ship. Some kind of scouting ship for the Githyanki navy.

“Pirates,” Sered told himself. “Pirates would need a fast scouting ship to find their targets in the Astral Sea.”

A lone Dragonborn was helping other adventurers onto the ship.

“The admiral is getting away!” Relvain shouted to the Dragonborn.

“I know,” the Dragonborn replied. “We have to chase him down. His ship is badly damaged. And Andrea Ravn is on it, trying to damage it further.”

“Damage it further?!”

“Last I saw her, she was using her breath on the sails. I don’t know what’s gotten into her. She says she has the Blood of Io. Says we all have it. All us Dragonborn, anyway.”

Along with an Elven Ranger they introduced as Delis, they helped the others onto the ship.

They unhooked the lines holding the ship to the dock and it lurched upward.

“Not as awkwardly as the admiral’s flagship,” he admitted. "But we’re going to have to learn fly this thing, if we’re going to catch Kada’ne before he reaches the portal.

Andrea Ravn continued her game of cat-and-mouse. She knew her allies were shooting at the admiral’s flagship. Some of their blasts were hitting. But she had no way of letting them know how well she was doing.

Nox Rhasgar agreed with Sered’s assessment. Controlling the scout ship — known as the Iliyoru — would be difficult. Seeing the sails flapping loose in the wind, he sent Relvain aloft to secure the sails.

“I may not know how to sail this craft,” Relvain shouted from the mast. “But I can surely pull on a rope!” She did just that and the mainsail was no longer flapping.

The scout ship pitched under Nox’s feet as Aurora tried to bring her under control, swinging wide over the shipyard below. He could see some Githyanki and Coalition forces still locked in combat, neither side giving ground in the ongoing assault.

Then suddenly, a group of white shapes peeled away from a skirmish with the Coalition’s griffon riders. At first, Nox thought they were running.

Eight white reptilian creatures winged their way up and toward Iliyoru with a shriek, their
Githyanki riders spurring them on. He jumped into one of Spell Turrets and cast one of his Elemental Bolts at one of the Astral Whitewings, which were now assaulting their vessel.

The creature was hurt, which frightened its rider. Nox could now see the reptilian creatures — he wouldn’t call them dragons unless he saw their breath weapons — were ridden by Githyanki.

“Minions, by the look of the way that one is running,” he told the others who took up positions in the Force Ballistas to blast at the other Whitewings and at the admiral’s ship as well.

Aurora was having difficulty figuring out the arcane secrets of the Helm which controlled the ship. By watching the Cev’ren’s erratic flight, Nox guessed Andrea was having some success disabling more sails on the ship ahead of them.

“We might even be gaining ground!” he shouted.

Then Relvain fell to the deck as she tried to swing to the other mast. Aurora gave up on the Arcana and simply grabbed ahold of the wheel and used it to swing their ship back and forth, to prevent the attacks from above from hitting them.

Sered missed twice with the Force Ballista, and Aurora continued working the wheel with great effect.

“I think she’s even learning to speed us up by using the wind,” Nox told himself. An explosion on the admiral’s flagship told him Andrea was having some success. “And Relvain’s great strength has got the rest of the sails under control.”

“Little more we can do with the sails and the Helm,” Aurora told him. “I’m going to try figuring out the arcane controls again.”

Sered fired an Astral Seal at the flagship.

“That will make it easier for me to hit it.”

But whatever Aurora was trying, it failed. The Iliyoru went into an out-of-control spiral which brought it into range of the Cev’ren’s grapples.

...When the Admiral...

…Is Frightened into a Desperate Run

She also decided to trap the admiral by further crippling his flagship, which was still under repair. Without further explanation, she leaped into the air, flew past a Warmaster who wounded her badly, jumped onto the side of the Cev’ren, and set one of its sail aflame.

Nox could see the terrified look on the admiral’s face. He turned to tell Delis what had happened. His words were drowned out by three cracks of lightning.

Before Nox could ask himself whether Kada’ne’s response would be fight or flight, he got his answer: When he looked back, the admiral’s ship was already floundering its way upward.

Although it was rising quickly, he could tell it was not flying as fast as it might.

“Not with one of its sails in flames and its repairs still incomplete.” But it was rising…

…rising toward the portal at the center of Garaitha’s Anvil.

The crew of the other ship was looking uneasily toward their fleeing leader. Nox could tell they knew they were being abandoned to allow Kada’ne’s getaway. So he decided to attack.

They were all perched atop a higher shelf of the shipyard — up where both ships had been berthed. Perched behind a makeshift barricade of supplies and ship-repair parts. The shelf itself protected them from Nox’s sorcery.

So he climbed one of the strange ladders the shipyard workers used to get from one level to another.

And came under withering fire from the Githyanki behind the barricades as soon as he got to their level.

Andrea Ravn knew what she wanted to do: Disable the Kada’ne’s flagship before it was repaired and make a run for it.

Grasping the edge of the gunwale and heaving upward, she saw the nearest sail, blasting it with her Dragonbreath. The Blood of Io let transform the lightning of her breath weapon into fire. The sail erupted in flame.

From her vantage clinging to the rail, she could look directly into Admiral Kada’ne’s eyes. And saw fear … pure unadulterated fear.

He began shouting orders to his crew in Deep Speech. Andrea could not understand the language, but she could tell the crew was confused, somehow conflicted between the their fear of the admiral and their unwillingness to carry out whatever order he was giving them.

Then one of the Blademasters in the crew stepped forward — apparently willing to do Kada’ne’s bidding. He pointed at the admiral, drew his hand into a fist, and threw the fist over the side.

Then Andrea knew what the admiral was ordering. The admiral soared over the gunwale. She just didn’t understand why. She was sure Kada’ne — like most Githyanki of his rank — could telekinetic leap off the ship if he wanted to run away. Why did he need his crew to throw him overboard. From the looks on the other crewmen, she could tell they were equally baffled. Even the Blademaster seemed to be puzzled.

Lightning burst from the admiral’s outstretched palms. His Soulstorm Strike blasted the chains which held the Cev’ren to the dock — surpassing the damage Andrea could accomplish with her Lightning Breath and turning the chains into molten metal. Then he used his own Telekinetic Leap to fly back to the deck of the ship…

… just as the ship lurched upward, into the sky …

…toward the seething portal at the center of Garaitha’s Anvil.

That was when Andrea realized what the admiral was doing: He was running, like the coward he always was.

But this time the coward was running on a crippled ship … with its sails in flames.

And she was clinging to the gunwales of that same ship. She could jump off and rejoin her party. Or she could stay on the flagship and try to stay alive and damage it further. “That would be quite a game of cat-and-mouse,” she thought. “Only who would be the cat? And who would be the mouse?”

“The Dragonborn is not used to fighting without an armored wall in front of him. He rushed right in, never knowing how dangerous that is for a Sorcerer.”

The Psychic Archers from the Iliyoru dazed Nox with their Psychic Shot arrows and had him bloodied in seconds. Delis concentrated her fire on the archers even as the Corsair Cutters moved in to finish the job.

And now the archers were dazing Delis as well.

Nox used a desperate teleport to drop back and heal himself while they finished off the minions. None of whom looked very willing to fight to the death for a leader who had already escaped and left them to fight and die.

They still had to deal with the Warmaster of the Iliyoru. He took Nox right to the brink of death.

But Delis knew she could out-maneuver the Githyanki, even if he was able to take Nox out of the fight. Nox might die, but the Warmaster was going down as well.

The Warmaster seemed to realize this about the same time Delis did. He made a run for his ship, making it back to the deck, trying to release its chains and escape with his admiral.

Delis caught up with him first, then the wounded Nox.

They finished him off before he had a chance to release the Iliyoru. And Delis knew what would come next: a chase — if they could figure out how to fly the ship — and a boarding action — if they could figure out how to fight one of the most powerful Githyanki they had ever faced.

...Andrea Decides...

…To Stop the Admiral’s Flagship.

“We all have the Blood of Io within us,” she told him. “Some of us — like Garen, and now me — just come to realize it more fully.”

She unfolded her wings. Once vestigial, they now were large and strong enough for her to fly short distances.

She told them she was worried. the admiral was trying to get his flagship into condition to flee. And they had no one who knew how to fly the other ship or how to fire its weapons.

She assumed that, if they could set his sails afire, the admiral would have to give up his chance to run.

And they needed to kill or capture the admiral…to get the key he carried.

That gave Andrea something to do with her wings.

She got a running start and leaped into the air. She flew over the first barricade before her wings began to tire.

Relvain the Dragonpinner took up the chant as the third wave prepared to go through the Portals. “A hundred as a thousand. A hundred as a thousand!”

Nox Rhasgar watched in amazement as Andrea flew at the largest of the Githyanki. It drew its silver sword and prepared for her attack.

Andrea landed on the barrel it was hiding behind.

Landed hard, because her wings were tired. The Githyanki drew back to defend himself…

…from an attack that never came. Andrea launched herself once again into the air above him. He swung wildly and his silver sword cut her badly. But she flew over him and landed well behind the line of defenders.

She taunted the Githyanki, but the admiral ordered them to stand fast.

For protection, he ordered the last crewmen off a nearby boat and demanded they stop Andrea. Then he went back to the repair of his own flagship….

…Well, to order the repair. He was yelling at dockworkers as well as the crew of his ship, which was obviously not yet ready to fly.

The admiral was also yelling at the few crewmen who still remained on the other ship. Nox thought he was ordering them to attack Andrea and protect him from the crazed Dragonborn Warlord.

Andrea did not wait for them to attack her. She ran toward the flagship and threw herself one more time into the air. This time she flew to the side of the admiral’s ship and grabbed ahold of some nets hanging over the side just as her wings gave out.

Nox knew what she planned to do next. He saw her drawing in her breath.

She was about to breathe fire and try to set the sails of the warship aflame.

...Through the Giants...

…To Link Up…

Delis saw the Eldritch Giant was now working on the control panel. She was sure it was one of the Fire Giants.

Even though its attention was on its task, it still heard sneaking around in the piles of equipment.

“Better hearing than a bunch of serfs used to toiling at the forges,” she admitted.

Luring the Giants back to the corridor where she could fight them one at a time, she started picking them off one at a time. The Fire Giant Serfs ran for it the first time she hit each of them with one of her arrows.

Then she came to one which was tougher — a Fire Giant Forgemaster.

Krasire made his way back to the Swiftriders. Megan needed to be told they had tried to find a way to get the team going after Admiral Kada’ne. But some giants were between them and the team.

It took the Eldritch Giant longer than Nox Rhasgar expected to bring down the force gates. But he was definitely better at it than the Fire Giants.

Now they were fighting both — Fire Giants and the Eldritch Giant.

He was surprised at how quickly the Fire Giants were defeated. The Serfs ran away at the first opportunity. The Forgemaster broke out of the Blood-Shadow trap Shadowfox penned him in, but he died quickly after that.

“Must not have any protection from my fire.”

Aurora didn’t really want to fight the Giants. When they broke through the force gates, however, she didn’t see an alternative. “I don’t think we can assault the barricades with Giants at our heels.”

Trinity Shadowfox was disappointed the Blood Shadows were unable to pen the Fire Giant, but he was glad it went down.

The Eldtritch Giant was a different story. It kept casting enormous fields of undulating magic.

As soon as he pulled it out of the center — or Aurora whipped it out with her Thorn Whips — it could call it back into itself and send it out as a blast. They were all taking a lot of damage from that.

...Goes in Behind Team Admiral...

…With Delis Erinthal and Krasire…

…trying to maintain contact and Megan Swiftblade’s Freeriders trying to make sure they can all get out. And Relvain the Dragonpinner waiting for the third wave … the main assault.

Krasire was somewhat satified that Aurora had incorporated some of his ideas into the plan they eventually settled on.

Team Admiral were going in first. Megan Swiftblade and her Freeriders were going in on the second wave — which was dubbed the “Stealth Wave.” He and Delis Erinthal would go with Megan and try to help her maintain contact with Aurora’s Team Admiral. The third wave was being called the “Main Assault” — led by The Dragonpinner herself — but everybody knew it was really a feint to draw attention from Team Admiral.

He and Delis were taking a lot of explosives in with them — all they could fit in his Bag of Holding.

When they got to the scaffolding Team Admiral planned to use as their entry point, they found evidence of a fight there. Dead Githyanki all over.

“Looks like their cover was not maintained.”

Privately, Krasire hoped they had just run into a routine patrol.

They placed barrels of explosives a key points on the scaffolds ready to blow if they needed to cover a hasty retreat. That was looking more likely if Team Admiral’s cover was blown.

They climbed the rickety structure and went through the hole in the wall. They found a small storage room. Then a hallway.

At the close end of the hall was a room with two Eldritch Giants bringing in supplies: wood and ingots mostly. At the other end of the hall, they found a forge — sized for giants.

He heard shouting behind him. Before he had a chance to hide, Delis was behind a forge furnace and the Eldritch Giants had spotted him.

The Dragonpinner sat sharpening her axe. The first two waves were just not her style. “I’m not built for stealth,” she said as she prepared for the main attack on the shipyard.

Delis Erinthal had to change her tactics once Krasire disappeared … seemingly shattered into a cloud of crystals.

The Eldritch Giants had spotted Krasire right away. Delis hid as soon as she heard the Giants shouting at each other. She wasn’t surprised they had heard Krasire. He wasn’t very stealthy.

“Stealthy for a rock, I guess.” But not as stealthy as an The Huntress of Winter’s Eye.

She had stayed out of sight while Krasire was attacked by the two Giants. Then he was shattered into a thousand crystals. One of the Giants left.

She decided she should work her way back to Megan without letting the Giants spot her. But the remaining eldritch creature was able to spot her before she got out and she had to start fighting it.

The room, with its giant forges and enormous anvils, proved the perfect battleground for her run-and-shoot tactics, allowing her to hide most of the time. The Giant had no such advantage and Delis found herself humming the tune to “Giants Don’t Sneak.”

Even before Krasire came back — “How did he do that?” — she was pretty sure she could kill the big creature and continue their mission without him. Once he got back they finished it off fairly quickly.

She scouted ahead and found the other Eidritch Giant had joined some Fire Giants who were trying to get through a magickal force door.

Beyond, she could see Nox trying to jam the door against their efforts.

...Fail to Prevent...

…Team Admiral…

…from making it to the docks.

Shade opened the door using the Thief’s Tools which Andrea loaned her. They peeked inside and saw two Fire Giants carrying metal balls from a room at the end of the hall toward an opening in the other side of the hall.

Loud crashing noises emanated from another room at their end of the hall.

She was able to sneak over and see what was making the noise: Two Arcane Giants — who looked a lot like the Eldritch Giants they fought back at the Sovereign Gate — were using gates near the ceiling to bring in supplies for the shipyard.

“Ingots of metal…and heavy wooden beams,” she observed. “I would not like to fight in there where they could drop that stuff on my head.”

At the other end of the hall she discovered a foundery. Elemental and Fire Giants were directing their minions at the forges. So she decided to follow the two Giants they had seen earlier.

The room on the other side was stacked with war materials…and it looked to her like some of it had already been shipped out. Beyond that she could see shimmering force gates and a patrol beyond.

“They must have let the Fire Giants through to the docks.”

She went back to report her findings to the others.

Nox Rhasgar decided to use his Arcana to figure out the panel beside to the Force Gates.

Andrea Ravn agreed they should ignore the dangerous rooms between them and the docks and go straight for the Force Gates.

“Our mission is to get to the admiral before he knows he’s being attacked,” she told them. “The sooner we can get through these guys the sooner we get to the admiral. If we can do that before the Fire Giants and Eldritch Giants know we are here, we might not even have to fight them at all.”

Sneaking as best each could, they made their way to the storage room. Hiding behind some wire-frame boxes — well, Shadowfox hid on top — they sent Nox forward to see if he could open the Force Gates.

She was pretty sure the guards on the other side could not see the Sorceror. The forces of the gates made the air all wobbly if you tried to look through them. Nox made himself as hard to see as possible by sticking close to the wall as worked on the panel.

Andrea was positive they would see him once the gates were down.

Sure enough.

When the gates disappeared, the guards formed up and attacked the Sorceror. Andrea knew he would expect them to rush to his aid. But she had another idea.

“Follow me,” she told the others. She led them around to another Force Gate — which had also been opened by Nox. Then, they were able to attack the guards in the rear as they attacked Nox.

The Sorceror did not wait around to be trapped as he had in the last battle.

This time he telelported out of the fray and joined them in their attack from the other side.

By the time Nox got around to back them up, they were already putting the Giant Fomorian Guards and some of their Githyanki friends on the run.

“Minions,” she snorted, even though two of the Githyanki stayed to fight. Alarms were going up all over and soon more waves of minions were coming at them as fast as they could put them on the run.

She knew they had to stop the waves from continuing, so she told Nox to see if he could re-close the Force Gates.

“And see if you can jam the mechanism. We’re gonna need enough time to fight our way to Admiral Kada’ne’s ship.”

Nox Rhasgar decided to use his Athletics to complete the first part of the effort to jam the Force Gates shut and stop the waves of Minions. “Everybody always forgets how strong Sorcerors are,” With brute force, he unlocked the inhibitors that controlled the flow of arcane power to the gates. Once that was done, however, his bulging forearms could do no more. “Unlocked is unlocked,” he told himself. “Maybe I can do the rest with Arcana.”

Nox tapped into the magic within one of the gates, gaining control of its flow.

Aurora saw how Nox was working the magic at one gate, so she went to the other and did the same thing to control its flow. "Once it’s controlled, though, there nothing more to do with our Arcana. We can turn them on, but it’s going to take some Thievery to jam the controls into the on position and prevent the re-inforcements on the other side from just re-opening them and hitting us in the rear.

Earlier she had seen the Assassin pick a lock, so she called him over to the panel.

“See if you can override part of the mechanism controlling the gates, Shadowfox,” she suggested.

Once the Assassin got the Force Gates back up, she saw it was just in time: The next wave of minions were not minions at all, but some of the Fire Giants they had seen earlier.

They finished off the Githyanki and their Fomorian minions and did a quick search of the bodies.

All they found were a couple of cameos…depicting Emperor Zetch’r’r.

“At least they might be worth some money,” she thought, pocketing one.

...on the Docks of Garaitha...

…as the Infiltration Team Gets Spotted.

Aurora was glad the ritualists had been able to scry the docks at Garaitha’s Anvil. The whole area was under a Forbiddance ritual to prevent scrying. The Wizards from Nefelus told her the power of the Sovereign Gate enabled them to find The Cev’ren in the vast shipyard in spite of these Forbiddance protections.

They showed her a map. Unfortunately, none of the Portals they had so far been able to find were in the immediate location of the admiral’s flagship — The Cev’ren — but a couple were nearby.

Her plan: To sneak in with the assassin’s guild party and try to capture or kill Admiral Kada’ne to get his crystal key; then, they would be followed five minutes later by wave of stealthy adventurers, each trying to penetrate from a different gate; finally, ten minutes after that, the largest wave with dozens of fighters would attack openly in as many locations as possible.

“Hopefully, the later waves will distract them from the main mission,” she told the Hundred Heroes gathered outside the Fane of Chaniir. “Capturing the crystal key.”

They arranged for a special signal when they had found the key to let the Hundred Heroes know they could withdraw.

“Don’t press your fight so hard you will not be able to break off when we find the key,” she warned them.

Across the bluffs and trails surrounding the fane, she saw the mages of the Coalition scribing dozens of planar portals, causing the fading twilight to blaze with eldritch light.

Spread out before them, the greatest heroes of the mortal realm stood in expectation of the battle to come. Most are on foot, a score or more mounted on steeds still skittish from having made the transit through portals from their own lands.

One force of rangers from the desert lands south of Elsir Vale make a last check of the tack on a flight of griffons.

No one spoke.

At Aurora’s signal, Bejam and his mages activate the planar portal in front of her, and a flare of white light cut through the darkness. Within that light, hazy images of the shipyard flare to life — windowless stone buildings, the open spaces between them thronging with Githyanki and giants.

Shadowfox introduced her to the crowd and she got them worked up before Nox made his speech.

Around her, the Hundred were ready, waiting to move at their word.

Nox made his speech: short but powerful:

“Using the advantage of our surprise, we will hit them — one hundred as a thousand.”
— the final words of Nox Rhasgar’s
speech to the Hundred Heroes

“Hundred as a thousand! Hundred as a thousand!”

Shade was impressed by the way the crowd reacted to Nox’s words. Picking up on them immediately, they began chanting the words louder and louder as Team Admiral stepped through the gate in front of them.

A Githyanki patrol spotted Nox almost as soon as they began to work their way toward their goal: a storeroom they hoped would lead them to the admiral’s ship.

“I guess we’ll have to fight our way in,” she told the others.

The fight did not go well for them. Nox got surrounded — not the sort of position the Sorceror was used to fighting from. Shade herself went down and had to play possum while Aurora healed them.

But she was not a true healer.

“Just a Druid with some good healing spells,” she told himself. The Druid was also summoning animals — firebirds and wolves mostly — to help with the fight.

Then she suddenly realized their mission was not to kill this Githyanki patrol, but to get past them.

In a flash she Ghost-on-the-Rooftopped up the construction equipment and made it through the hole in the wall to the door to the storage room.

“Alas, it is locked.”

She tried to pick the lock, but could not open it.

Looking back down at the rest of the kidnap-the-admiral team, she saw they were in desperate straights.

Nox went down — it was the first time Shade had ever seen him taken out of a fight. Aurora stabilized him, but Shade had to Ghost-on-the-Rooftops back down to pull a potion from the Sorceror’s belt and revive him.

That gave them just enough to finish off the patrol.

“I guess killing them works, too,” she said. “And this way they cannot get help.”

They searched the bodies, but found nothing beyond the usual silver weapons carried by all Githyanki. They knew they had to move on if they were going to be able to use the next wave as a distraction.

...Is a Time for...

Krasire…

In her dream she had finally reached Queen Ileosa and returned her stolen broach. The queen had offered her a job, a job in the Queens Guard. Somehow Andrea knew Nox had gotten a job there, too. Even though he was not in the dream this time.

“Had to kill the darn imps by myself.” She knew she was lying to herself. The House Drakes in the dream city of Korvosa had helped her finish them off. “But the queen didn’t seem so bad. Maybe the rumors aren’t true. The king’s line has always been cursed.”

She found a line at the World Gate. The mages of Nefelus were apparently putting Whitefire Marks on as many of the heroes who were gathering as possible. The cat-girl Druid in front of him was not impressed by the Hundred Heroes.

“Look like wandering mercenaries to me,” she said surveying the crowd.

When they got through the World Gate to the Sovereign Gate, Andrea saw it was well-guarded. She recognized one of the guards — a Freerider named Ragnum Dourstone. Ragnum told them the Githyanki were still trying to use the portals.

Andrea wondered aloud how long it would take for Admiral Kada’ne to catch on.

“We questioned one moving alone, said he was from Utargarth, Utargarath, something like that. Someone named Kada’ne sent him to the fane to see what’s up with the team supposed to be holding it. It’s a safe bet there’ll be more like him coming through soon enough.”

Andrea had good idea what Utargarath was: “Utargaraith is the name of the interplanar shipyards,” she told the Druid, “where the Githyanki build and repair their fleets of astral craft and airships — Garaitha’s Anvil, as it is most commonly translated.”

They found Krasire and took him down the long stairs. Beyond the astral vortex, the exhausted Bejam stood with Haryssus, the works of the eldritch giant’s library spread across the tables.

“We have gained a valuable ally in our fight against the Githyanki,” Bejam said, nodding to the giant. “I have learned much of the operation of this place, but I fear that it spells our doom all the same.”

Haryssus told them the only way to control the Sovereign Gate was to use one the four crystal keys to the plinth at the top of the ivory stairs.

Queen Vlaakith held one, but her key was said to be lost when
she was destroyed.

Zetch’r’r holds one, taken from one of Vlaakith’s captains slain when the new emperor came to power.

Kada’ne, admiral of the Githyanki fleet, holds one.

Do’kan, general and master of the Githyanki ground forces, holds the third.

Remembering what Ragnum Dourstone had said about the admiral, she suggested that was the key they should after.

Bejam told them he had sent word to the Coalition leadership, requesting that they come to the fane for a war council that can decide the Coalition’s course of action.

When they got back to the Chaniri’s cave, however, not all members of the Coalition leadership had made the journey. In particular, Eoffram Troyas remained behind in Brindol to help deal with a Hobgoblin uprising.

“I hope it’s the real thing this time,” Andrea thought. The last time the representative of Brindol had been concerned about Hobgoblins, it was a ruse intended to win votes for the leadership of the Council.

Amyria is here, as are other Coalition members. Andrea recognized Fariex, even though he was in human form.

The cautious Quelenna Entromiel was there as well, potentially undercutting any hope Andrea had of inspiring the Coalition into a quick response to the Githyanki threat.

The war council took place in an abandoned library in the fane. Megan Swiftblade and a dozen other heroes of the Coalition are on guard, but the bulk of those who have come to defend the fane are outside, getting their Whitefire Marks, in line at the World Gate, or in the Well of Worlds, keeping watch against a Githyanki attack.

Bejam tried to convince the Coalition leaders of the danger posed by the extension of the Sovereign Gate’s powers to the World Gates. Andrea told them their walls would be no use against an enemy who could teleport vast armies past their gates.

But Quelenna Entromiel took the lead arguing for caution.

“We are far from our homes and families — the places and people we are bound to defend. This place, these planar sites you speak of are meaningless targets. A majority of our many lands’ heroes are here now to defend these places, and for what?

“This is a fight we cannot win, and as such, it is a fight we cannot consider. Waiting here for eventual attack or, worse, seeking out the Githyanki stretches our already over-extended resources past the breaking point. Instead, we must ask what we might do to hinder the Githyanki. Slow down their plots to give us time to plan a proper defense of
our homelands.”
— Quelenna’s speech to the Council
at the Fane of Chaniir

He called on all his years of experience as one of the secret leaders of Waterdeep. The Lords of Waterdeep did not rule openly. They did not make public speeches like this one.

That did not mean they didn’t have to be persuasive. They had to convince people individually.

“That gives me a lot of experience in convincing other leaders,” he thought. Leaders like the members of the Council.

He could tell his speech had not swayed Quellena. But he was surprised when the vote went against them.

“Not that she could have been convinced.” he thought. “Her mind was made up long ago. I though I could convince the others.”

But Megan Swiftblade was a different story. She seemed moved almost to tears by his words.

“The Coalition’s so-called leaders don’t know what they’re saying,” she snorted. "Bankers and merchant lords, the lot of them. If you say we need to strike this Garaitha’s Anvil, the Freeriders are with you. But there’s nearly a hundred of us — the Freeriders and the other adventurers who have answered your call — here all told, come together to show our strength. With you leading, I promise the rest will follow.”
— Megan Swiftblade’s reply
to Quelenna after the vote

Cain Shadowfox was frustrated. They had a rough map of the docks at Garaitha’s Anvil. But everyone seemed intent on promoting their own plans for how to attack it. They needed to strike hard and fast. But the admiral was known for his caution. Some even called it cowardice. As soon as he knew they were coming for him, they were sure he would flee.

Bejam told him, “The Garaitha docks are set with two score permanent portals.”

He knew it could not be that easy. “Those sigil sequences are one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Githyanki empire,” he pointed out.

“Good,” he told the wizard. “We can teleport right to the admiral’s flagship.”

“We don’t know for sure where the flagship is located,” Bejam told him. “Maybe we can scrye the location.”

“Once again they must have powerful protections against scrying,” Andrea pointed out.

“Yes,” the wizard admitted. “But the power of the Sovereign Gate might be used to overcome those protections.”

As leaders of the Hundred Heroes, Cain thought they could come up with a plan but everybody seemed to be pushing their own ideas, rather than working together.

He thought they should send in the sneakiest of the heroes — maybe even the Freeriders themselves — to infiltrate the shipyards. A distraction was suggested. Andrea had her own ideas about the attack.

“What do you think?”
— Amyria to Aurora
when planning reached an impasse

“Well,” Aurora said, “I think we should lead the attempt to capture the admiral. If we go in first, we will be less likely to spook him into fleeing.”

“What of the others?”

“They can attack once we have had a chance to infiltrate and grab Admiral Kada’ne,” she explained. “They must attack with full force, even if we do not believe they will take the shipyards and hold them.”

Amyria seemed impressed with her ideas. “Everybody will need to be ready to retreat with the admiral once you capture. The Hundred Heroes will have to avoid committing to an all-out attack if they are going to be ready to escape when the time comes.”

She suggested they have a signal to let everyone know they had captured Admiral Kada’ne.

Then Amyria turned to Nox and asked him what he thought of the plan.

“Sounds like a good one,” the Sorceror told them. “If we can get in fast enough, we may be able to catch them before he turns tail and runs.”

They headed through the World Gate to tell the Nefelese ritualists what they needed from their scrying rituals.

...and Learns Much...

…About her Powers

Nox Rhasgar remembered the giant had warned them to go back. Not so much a threat, he thought, as a warning.

Andrea was easily convinced. And, when the Warlord told Relvain she could see magickal shackles on the hands and feet of the Astral Giant, the Dragonpinner decided to go along and concentrate on the Githyanki Shade which had appeared before them. This one looked stronger than the ones they fought back in the fane and was armed with two bastard swords.

But the real problem was the slippery, wet surface of the ivory bridge. Nox was able to climb back up the stairs to where it was dry. He could still hit the ghost from there. No matter where it went.

But the others found it harder. Relvain slipped and fell into the seething vortex of magic. She had a hard time even climbing out.

Andrea had an easier time getting out, but she slipped back in repeatedly.

The Dreamer found herself once again in a swamp looking for a Giant Centipede. She knew she had to kill it to create the Undead Centipede which would one day be known as Nightshade. Even though she was good at stealth, it didn’t seem like there was much to sneak up on in this swamp. She decided to try tracking the creatures. She wasn’t much good at tracking, but it proved easy. “Giant Centipedes leave very distinctive footprints.” When she found one, however, it bit her…

“Back in the secret room at the Fane of Chaniir,” she told herself. But this time she was not wrapped in chains. “Lots of noise outside.”

So she sneaked out and found the fane was bustling with activity. The Alliance was moving in. A Wizard from Nefelus named Bejam filled her in. The fane was cleared — even the Chaniiri they had rescued were gone.

Bejam introduced her to a group of Wizards experimenting on the bodies of the Painbringers they had killed. They were able to transfer some of the magic in the Whitefire Marks — strange tatoos that glowed with white radiant light — to her forearm. They told him the tatoos would enable her to go through a powerful gate to join the strike force that was reconning some place of power they Githyanki were using.

When the ritualists in the next room sent her through, she found lots of dead Githyanki.

“I see Nox and the others have been through here. Lots of scorch marks on these corpses.”

She found a pool of magickal water and a room with two dead giants, then a room with nothing but four mirrors and a stairway leading down.

“Ivory stairs, all carved from a single piece of ivory.” Grim was not sure she wanted to meet the creature whose horn produced such a stairway. At least 300 feet long, she realized by the time she heard the sounds of fighting below.

When she got to the bottom, the fight was not going well. She and Nox were able to damage the powerful ghost they were fighting. When she used her Executioner’s Noose to slide the creature into the maelstrom of magic, it simply used its telekinetic powers to leap to one of the pillars in the vortex.

There Relvain and Andrea had a hard time getting to it. So Grim leapt out to the pillars herself like a Ghost on the Rooftops. She was able to pursue it from pillar to pillar, eventually forcing it back to the bridge.

The ghost returned to its pillars as soon as it could, leaving Relvain once more out of the fight.

“You’re doing something that none of the rest of us can do,” the frustrated Dwarf told her. “You’re herding it.”

Then Andrea felling unconscious. and Grim knew they were really in trouble.

Relvain the Dragonpinner was frustrated. She could see they were close to losing the fight. And she could not get to the ghostly Githyanki as long as he stayed out on the pillars. Just when Shadowfox had finally learned to herd it off them, Andrea went down. “Looks like our healer is dying.”

Andrea Ravn regained consciousness to find herself looking up at Nox. The Sorceror had just poured a potion down her throat.

“Not the Potion of Regeneration I gave him,” she thought, tasting it on her lips. “It must have been one of the Potions of Vitality we found.”

She knew their only chance was if she could keep herself alive. So she healed herself and tried a Defensive Rally to pep up the rest of the party.

“Can’t afford to lose our only healer,” she told them.

Then Trinity Shadowfox brought out a power she had never seen her use before: Blood Shadows. Hiding from the bloodied Shade, she was able to teleport to its pillar and attack it with her Talenta Sharash.

Andrea watched as the blood from the attack drained to the ground and spread out across the creature’s very shadow. The Assassin was about to spill more blood all around the top of that pillar when she noticed a devious grin appear on Shadowfox’s face.

Shaking the scythe-like weapon — first on the next pillar, then on the one behind, and finally at the bridge itself — Shadowfox created three more Blood Shadows. Now, wherever it went it would find a shadow made of its own blood granting anyone who attacked it combat advantage.

When the ghost fled those pillars, Trinity followed it and forced it back onto the ivory bridge, where they were all able to combine their attacks and kill it.

“Now, if she could just learn to combine those Blood Shadows with the herding tactics she uses when she uses the Talenta Sharash as an Executioner’s Noose,” Andrea thought. “She could be really effective.”